When the U.S. housing bubble burst in 2007, real estate projects weren’t the only casualty. So were many planned golf courses that had a real estate tie. That was the case for the esteemed team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw at Palmetto Bluff, where plans to add a new course in the Lowcountry of South Carolina fell through.

Now, nearly 17 years later, Coore and Crenshaw have gotten a second chance to build a new course under a new ownership team at the vibrant and growing waterfront community in Bluffton.

The yet-to-be named course will be the third within Palmetto Bluff, which is situated between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia, and is defined not only by its 20,000-acre property but its 32 miles of coastline along three rivers – May, Cooper, and New. The community in 2005 opened the May River Golf Course, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design, and at the start of this year debuted a reversible 9-hole course called Crossroads that was built by Tad King and Rob Collins.

The property’s ownership group, South Street Partners – one of the largest owners and operators of private residential club and resort communities in the U.S. – is bringing Coore and Crenshaw back to create an 18-hole course on Palmetto Bluff’s East end that will anchor what will eventually be the community’s third village (Anson).

Despite the real estate connection, the new course will embrace a different approach, especially in the Lowcountry.

South Street requested the Coore & Crenshaw team make their decisions without a land planning model dictating where the course needs to go on the 500-acre parcel. In other words, real estate won’t play into the design at all.

Similarities to Pinehurst No. 2?

The course, which is expected to open in late 2025 or early 2026, will traverse four different forest types (upland pine, maritime, live oaks, and salt and sabal palmettos) before transitioning into wide-open spaces with dramatic coastal vistas. Several holes border picturesque bluffs with expansive marsh views of the New River.

Perhaps most notably in terms of the look and feel, the course will bear a resemblance to Pinehurst’s iconic No. 2 course and the work Coore and Crenshaw did there, as fairways and greens at Palmetto Bluff’s new course will transition directly into the native edges, whether that’s dense woodland, sandy brush, open quail woods, freshwater wetlands or saltwater marsh.

“We are excited about the potential of the site we’ve been given and the opportunity to create a course that hopefully can become a complement to the long history of golf in the Carolina community,” said Coore, who had walked the exact Lowcountry acreage almost two decades earlier.

Chris Randolph, a partner at South Street, said Coore & Crenshaw were the “obvious first choice” for the new course at Palmetto Bluff, the largest remaining entitled waterfront property on the East Coast. Acquired in 2021, Palmetto Bluff is one of the signature properties in a South Street portfolio that also includes Kiawah Island in South Carolina, The Cliffs private luxury communities in the Carolinas, and the King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort in St. Simons Island, Georgia.

“Our vision was perfectly aligned from the start – to create a masterpiece that would not only be exciting to play but would also fit within its setting as though it could have been built a hundred years ago,” said Randolph.

Palmetto Bluff currently features two village centers – Wilson and Moreland – as well as the private Palmetto Bluff Club that offers exclusive access to amenities including the newly renovated Shooting Club, the Wilson Lawn & Racquet Club, a 12-acre working farm, the Wilson Landing Marina, and the two existing golf courses.

In addition to real estate offerings that range from distinctive estates and cottages to ready-to-build homesites, there’s also the Forbes Five-Star Montage Palmetto Bluff resort on property. Guests of the resort have access to the golf courses, with peak season rates (including gratuity) ranging from $245 for nine holes with a caddie at Crossroads to $430 to walk 18 holes at May River.

Building Momentum

Real estate was a key driver of the golf course building boom in the U.S. from 1985 to 2006, with almost half of the 4,000 new facilities that opened over that two-decade stretch featuring a residential component, according to the National Golf Foundation. The Great Recession followed the collapse of the U.S. housing market, and the pace of golf development wasn’t sustainable. In fact, since 2010 the nationwide number of real estate-related golf facilities is down 4%, according to the NGF.

With golf’s post-pandemic resurgence and the appeal of destination communities like Palmetto Bluff, residential golf development has experienced an uptick in recent years. Approximately 42% of current new course projects have a real estate tie, per the NGF. The new Coore-Crenshaw course at Palmetto Bluff fits that mold, even though housing won’t at all dictate the routing.

“When people think about a golf destination, they really weren’t thinking about Palmetto Bluff,” said South Street’s President of Operations Rob Duckett.

“But with the addition of the Coore-Crenshaw course and the King-Collins course, that’s going to transform Palmetto Bluff into a pretty significant golf destination for somebody who’s passionate about golf. Having a place that they could go and then have the variety that Palmetto Bluff can offer would be tremendous, probably the leader in the marketplace that Hilton Head area.”